Another likely way is to add this kind of auto-tagging capability to Facebook’s mobile app, where Facebook is lagging badly and where Face.com’s Klik app is far ahead. Those are no brainers. But how else could Facebook use your face?

* As a log in. I do think that biometric logins will become standard on devices and networks because, frankly, passwords suck. Web cams are pretty standard these days, and facial recognition is better than many methods. It’s not as accurate as, say, retina scans or fingerprints, but much harder to steal than passwords and slightly less creepy in that Minority Report kind of way.

As Facebook moves onto mobile devices and other other platforms like public kiosks or home appliances where typing and other forms of biometrics are impractical, facial recognition would be an easy, low cost approach – and I’m sure many FB fans would welcome it.

* To ferret out fakes. In my ongoing research into Facebook fakes, it seems a lot of FB bot operators lazily reuse the same photos over and over again. Routine facial recognition scans could put the kibosh on those pretty quickly.

* To suggest friends. If a photo can predict age and mood, what’s to say it can’t predict other affinities between users? Blondes may be attracted to other blondes and shun brunettes, for example. Facebook’s own “People You May Know” algorithms are fairly flawed, and these guys aren’t exactly shy about using your data in any way you’ll let them.

* For data mining. Let’s face it: We’re all getting tossed into buckets created by data miners seeking correlations between data point A and data points B, C, and D. If you “Like” certain brands, you are more likely to like other brands – this much we already know – and thus will see different ads based on that data. So why would photos be treated any differently?

If people with crooked noses and buck teeth prove to big fans of tramp stamp tattoos and Captain Morgan Rum, they’re probably also big fans of Jim Beam and Little Debbie snack cakes – and will likely see ads for all of those things, even if they never clicked “Like” on any of them.

Likewise, if people whose photos display male pattern baldness and narrow-set eyes tend to be 5.2 percent more likely to issue fraudulent insurance claims, you might find yourself also denied insurance, you rodent faced baldy, and never know the reasons why.

Ultimately it’s all just data, used in ways most mortals have no idea about but banks, insurance companies, and advertisers are keenly interested in.

Are there nastier more paranoid implications one can draw from all this? You bet. But I’ll leave those for another time. I can’t face them at the moment.

Got a question about social media? TY4NS blogger Dan Tynan may have the answer (and if not, he’ll make something up). Visit his snarky, occasionally NSFW blog eSarcasm or follow him on Twitter: @tynanwrites. For the latest IT news, analysis and how-to’s, follow ITworld on Twitter and Facebook.